London: Ukraine has launched an operation against pro-Russian activists who seized two government buildings in the town of Sloviansk, a media report said Sunday.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has announced on his Facebook page that security units have been deployed to take back the police station and a state security building which were seized Saturday by armed men dressed in camouflage fatigues in Sloviansk, a town about 100 km north of regional capital Donetsk near the Russian border, BBC reported Sunday.
The armed men initially occupied the police station, where they seized at least 400 handguns and 20 automatic weapons.
“The aim of occupying the police station was the guns which they are giving out to the protestors in Sloviansk,” Xinhua Saturday quoted an official as saying.
The attack on the police station was followed by the storming of the state security building.
The US has accused Russia of inciting trouble in eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian protestors took over government buildings throughout the region earlier this month.
After seizing government buildings in Ukraine’s eastern city of Donetsk, the protestors proclaimed the region’s independence from Kiev last week.
Russia has refused to take responsibility for the protests in eastern Ukraine.